AI Build Lab for Founders: Discover

AI Build Lab for Founders Series

Take your idea from concept to launch in a 3-part interactive series. Leverage AI tools to build a live product, put it in front of users, and leave with honest feedback, concrete next steps, and the tools to keep going - no coding background required.

Session 1: Discover

Led by: Omri Shacham, Founding Partner at Elliptic Ventures

Validate the problem before writing a single line of code. Turn your idea into clear hypotheses around target users, existing workarounds, and willingness to pay. Use AI to mine real customer complaints across online forums, fact-check the findings, stress-test your concept against multiple AI models, and draft your customer interview plan.

Session 2: Build

Led by: Michael Affronti, Chief Product & Business Officer at DriveCentric

Move from validation to a working product. Founders write a focused one-page plan based on customer interviews, building exclusively to test their biggest assumption. An AI verification tool tests the build against the plan before launch, followed by rapid 60-second live demos and peer critiques.

Note: You must also register for all 3 sessions to complete the series. Session 2, Session 3

Who it is for

Current NYU students, Alumni, and Faculty

Coders and non-coders are welcome.

Anyone who wants to explore ideas, is curious about entrepreneurship, or has started building.

Deliverables for Session 1: Discover

Written assumptions about the customer, problem, and willingness to pay

A problem report with sources they checked themselves

The three riskiest assumptions

A user research interview script

A list of 20 people to talk to, with 5 messages already sent

Deliverables for Session 2: Build

A live product or MVP

A real ask on it: waitlist, pre-order, or booking

A build reviewed and tested independently by peers and industry practitioners

Full series highlights

Hands-on from start to finish. Every session ends with something real in hand, not just notes.

Real customers, not guesses. Founders talk to 5 to 10 potential users and put a working product in front of them.

Two tracks. No-code founders build with tools like Lovable, Replit, v0, and Bolt. Founders who code use Claude Code or Cursor.

Honest checks built in. Founders open and verify every source, set their success target before the results come in, and have a second tool test every build.

A live product with a real ask. Each product goes live with a waitlist, pre-order, or booking option.

Demo day. The series ends with founders presenting to guest founders and investors.

Tools they keep. Every founder leaves with the full Leverage kit and their own working setup.

What founders walk away with

A tested idea. Assumptions checked against real conversations and real data.

A live product MVP. Reviewed, tested, and in front of first users, or a clear and cheap "no."

A decision and a plan. Continue, change, or stop, backed by evidence, with the next 14-day test written out.

Their own working toolkit. Research, idea testing, building and review tools, set up and ready to use.

The Leverage kit. Every prompt and tool used in the series.

Entrepreneurship mindset. Check the sources. Set the target first. Never let the builder grade its own work.

A cohort. A group of founders who built alongside them.